Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Thursday, October 16, 2014
Performance Art
Performance Art
Noun;
An art form that combines visual art with dramatic performance.
Of all the performance art we had to read about and watch, my favorite by far was the flash mobs. In order to coordinate so many people and have them all perform specific functions on Que is no easy undertaking. http://youtu.be/GqfHkjyC8aM At first I thought the mob was just there to stand still as one person was rocking out, making her performance significantly more dramatic then it would have been had everyone in the audience been dancing. But as more people slowly started to join in her motions it became clear that there would be a trickling effect throughout the crowd. Having so many people doing the exact same motions was very impressive. However, I found myself laughing that the Black Eyed Peas eventually had a rigged audience, they were going to get applause no matter how poorly they sung. Another good example of this was http://youtu.be/GBaHPND2QJg, having only one musician to begin with, then having another join in, and then another and so on was really interesting to see and hear. The music grew as would be expected as more musicians joined in, but seeing them walk through a crowd to preform is different then only hearing them join in on Que in an orchestra. It gave the music a kind of life that is not normally there with just sound alone.
Noun;
An art form that combines visual art with dramatic performance.
Of all the performance art we had to read about and watch, my favorite by far was the flash mobs. In order to coordinate so many people and have them all perform specific functions on Que is no easy undertaking. http://youtu.be/GqfHkjyC8aM At first I thought the mob was just there to stand still as one person was rocking out, making her performance significantly more dramatic then it would have been had everyone in the audience been dancing. But as more people slowly started to join in her motions it became clear that there would be a trickling effect throughout the crowd. Having so many people doing the exact same motions was very impressive. However, I found myself laughing that the Black Eyed Peas eventually had a rigged audience, they were going to get applause no matter how poorly they sung. Another good example of this was http://youtu.be/GBaHPND2QJg, having only one musician to begin with, then having another join in, and then another and so on was really interesting to see and hear. The music grew as would be expected as more musicians joined in, but seeing them walk through a crowd to preform is different then only hearing them join in on Que in an orchestra. It gave the music a kind of life that is not normally there with just sound alone.
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Binary World: Triumph of the Nerds Part 1, 2 & 3
Part 1:
The first part of Triumph of the Nerds starts off with interviews of major players in the computer industry, like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as well as their lesser known right hand men. This part also goes into what makes a nerd a nerd, it was very boring and stereotypical. The video then shows off the first personal computer; the Altair, made in 1975. This computer consisted of just switches, no outlet for a monitor or any kind of visual display. At the time this was apparently a huge deal, considering computers were the size of entire rooms. What made this possible was the advancements in computer chips from Intel. For some reason Intel did not have the inspiration to make smaller computers, using their chips for traffic lights and other devices. This part takes a really strange turn when the narrator and one of his interviewees take off their cloths and get into a hot tub. Seeing Steve Jobs so much is a constant reminder that he is no longer alive, but it is interesting seeing how Apple got its start. The story of Steve Jobs trying to get an investor from Venture Capitalists while wearing sandals and having a straggly beard, and walked away with the money was very humorous. Visicalc became an accountants wet dream and lead to the "spreadsheet", which made calculations that normally took a week to be done in an hour.
Part 2:
IBM started with making large mainframe computers for big businesses. IBM is huge, and is compared to a country in the video, having everything a country has, except for an army. IBM used "open architecture" in order to get started in the computer business, something IBM had never done before. Open Architecture meant taking parts already made and putting them together, whereas IBM normally created every part of their technology. IBM had to buy the software for their computers, because they only knew how to do hardware. This video then cuts back to the naked hot tub interview, which brings the weird straight into this part.IBM went to Bill Gates for the software, however they were unable to supply at that time, so IBM goes to Digital Research, who ended up turning away IBM. IBM goes back to Microsoft who are able to find a small business with an operating system and they secured it. The narrator compares IBM to God, that's bound to ruffle some feathers. Microsoft bought the rights to the software for 50 thousands dollars and turned around and made billions. What made IBM's computer a major success was the Visicalc spin off, Lotus 123. What Microsoft was banking on was there being compatible computers in the future, meaning competitors of IBM had to go to Microsoft. Compact, a competing company managed to reverse engineer the IBM's computer and released their own computer. Microsoft was selling the software to every clone maker in the computer market. Bill Gates is compared to being a cult leader. IBM asks Microsoft to write the OS2, which ironically was suppose to put Microsoft out of business. To stay alive Microsoft was investing into turning DOS into a new and improved operating system called Windows.
Part 3:
Most of the ideas in Windows 95 were invented 20 years prior. What made it a success was the ruthless marketing tactics that Microsoft utilized. "Pictures rather than words" or "gewie" became the norm and allowed for the average person to be able to use computers and not just computer geniuses. The Alto was essentially what Windows 95 became, and it was made in the 70's. Steve Jobs saw the visual interface and knew that all computers would be like this one day. This video loves to make negative French references. Jobs started the Macintosh project after the Lisa project was a failure. He wanted it to be "insanely great" as well as costing only $600, which is extremely difficult. Microsoft took a gamble to write apps for the Macintosh in order to try for both company's to compete against IBM. Watching the reveal of the Macintosh gave me goose bumps and made me remember the happy days when Apple revealing their products did not break Imessage. In order for the Macintosh to be successful they needed an app that would warrant buying the entire machine. Apple bought 19% of Adobe and this lead to lazer printing which made it possible to print out exactly what was on the screen in near perfect detail. Jobs left Apple because of the board choosing a different direction then what Jobs wanted for the company. Bill Gates realized that the Mac was a threat to Dos, and so they made Windows to compete with Apple. Windows 3 secured Microsoft's dominance over Apple. Steve Jobs thinks Microsoft has no taste. The narrator talks about the internet as only someone in the 90's could, which wonder and awe. Rich American has some kind of Asian decor fetish, and yet does not walk around barefoot in his own house. This video also concludes that Apple was in trouble and fading away in the PC market. Funny how that turned out.
The first part of Triumph of the Nerds starts off with interviews of major players in the computer industry, like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as well as their lesser known right hand men. This part also goes into what makes a nerd a nerd, it was very boring and stereotypical. The video then shows off the first personal computer; the Altair, made in 1975. This computer consisted of just switches, no outlet for a monitor or any kind of visual display. At the time this was apparently a huge deal, considering computers were the size of entire rooms. What made this possible was the advancements in computer chips from Intel. For some reason Intel did not have the inspiration to make smaller computers, using their chips for traffic lights and other devices. This part takes a really strange turn when the narrator and one of his interviewees take off their cloths and get into a hot tub. Seeing Steve Jobs so much is a constant reminder that he is no longer alive, but it is interesting seeing how Apple got its start. The story of Steve Jobs trying to get an investor from Venture Capitalists while wearing sandals and having a straggly beard, and walked away with the money was very humorous. Visicalc became an accountants wet dream and lead to the "spreadsheet", which made calculations that normally took a week to be done in an hour.
Part 2:
IBM started with making large mainframe computers for big businesses. IBM is huge, and is compared to a country in the video, having everything a country has, except for an army. IBM used "open architecture" in order to get started in the computer business, something IBM had never done before. Open Architecture meant taking parts already made and putting them together, whereas IBM normally created every part of their technology. IBM had to buy the software for their computers, because they only knew how to do hardware. This video then cuts back to the naked hot tub interview, which brings the weird straight into this part.IBM went to Bill Gates for the software, however they were unable to supply at that time, so IBM goes to Digital Research, who ended up turning away IBM. IBM goes back to Microsoft who are able to find a small business with an operating system and they secured it. The narrator compares IBM to God, that's bound to ruffle some feathers. Microsoft bought the rights to the software for 50 thousands dollars and turned around and made billions. What made IBM's computer a major success was the Visicalc spin off, Lotus 123. What Microsoft was banking on was there being compatible computers in the future, meaning competitors of IBM had to go to Microsoft. Compact, a competing company managed to reverse engineer the IBM's computer and released their own computer. Microsoft was selling the software to every clone maker in the computer market. Bill Gates is compared to being a cult leader. IBM asks Microsoft to write the OS2, which ironically was suppose to put Microsoft out of business. To stay alive Microsoft was investing into turning DOS into a new and improved operating system called Windows.
Part 3:
Most of the ideas in Windows 95 were invented 20 years prior. What made it a success was the ruthless marketing tactics that Microsoft utilized. "Pictures rather than words" or "gewie" became the norm and allowed for the average person to be able to use computers and not just computer geniuses. The Alto was essentially what Windows 95 became, and it was made in the 70's. Steve Jobs saw the visual interface and knew that all computers would be like this one day. This video loves to make negative French references. Jobs started the Macintosh project after the Lisa project was a failure. He wanted it to be "insanely great" as well as costing only $600, which is extremely difficult. Microsoft took a gamble to write apps for the Macintosh in order to try for both company's to compete against IBM. Watching the reveal of the Macintosh gave me goose bumps and made me remember the happy days when Apple revealing their products did not break Imessage. In order for the Macintosh to be successful they needed an app that would warrant buying the entire machine. Apple bought 19% of Adobe and this lead to lazer printing which made it possible to print out exactly what was on the screen in near perfect detail. Jobs left Apple because of the board choosing a different direction then what Jobs wanted for the company. Bill Gates realized that the Mac was a threat to Dos, and so they made Windows to compete with Apple. Windows 3 secured Microsoft's dominance over Apple. Steve Jobs thinks Microsoft has no taste. The narrator talks about the internet as only someone in the 90's could, which wonder and awe. Rich American has some kind of Asian decor fetish, and yet does not walk around barefoot in his own house. This video also concludes that Apple was in trouble and fading away in the PC market. Funny how that turned out.
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